Showboat Atlantic City Hotel and Casino to close, official says

The Showboat Atlantic City Hotel and Casino is closing after more than 27 years of operation, according to an official with the city's largest casino workers union.

Unite HERE Local 54 president Bob McDevitt said Showboat's 2,100 employees will receive WARN Act notices Friday.

The federal law requires covered companies to give workers at least 60 days notice if plans are in place to shut down a job site or execute mass layoffs.

"We were notified earlier today from Caesars that they're issuing WARN Act notices to Showboat employees tomorrow and we immediately began notifying our members," McDevitt said Thursday night.

Caesars Entertainment Corp., which operates Showboat and four other casinos in Atlantic City, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Showboat will be the city's second casino to shut its doors this year. The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel closed in January, causing about 1,600 people to lose their jobs.

"For a company like Caesars to shut down a profitable casino with positive profitability is a crime against the entire community in Atlantic City," McDevitt said.

Showboat reported just under $2 million in gross operating profit for the quarter ending March 31, 2014, according to the state Division of Gaming Enforcement.

But that came as a decline of nearly 77 percent from the $8.5 million in profit Showboat took in during the same period the year before.

Six of Atlantic City's 11 casinos reported gross operating losses during the first quarter. One of them, Revel Casino Hotel, last week filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in as many years.